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Achy Knees

When I was really overweight, I developed this wonderful condition called gout. It is a form of arthritis, where uric acid crystals get deposited in the joints, causing them to be painful and swell. The even more delightful part of this situation is that I felt vertigo every time I popped a pill of the only medicine prescribed to me – by two separate doctors. So I couldn’t take the cure, because I was practically losing hours of my life thanks to the sensation of the ground moving under my feet.

The next thing was to try and tackle gout through diet. Which, oh joy, reduces proteins and increases carbs. Just peachy. I gave up trying to accomplish losing weight at all as a result, and made peace with being overweight. I suffered with swollen feet and hands, painful finger joints, and achy knees that pop frequently.

This was all when I was still in Goa. Moving back to Mumbai, I got sucked into work and couldn’t figure out a weight loss strategy till the beginning of this year. So far so good.

I always assumed that my knees would stop hurting once they stopped having to support the excess weight. But what I am realising now, to something of dawning horror, that my knees are cracking quite a bit thanks to exercise. Somewhat counterproductive. So I turned to trusty Google.

[I saw a WedMD article, but panicked so fast that I closed down that tab without reading any further.]

– I need to strengthen the muscles in my thighs and glutes, because they centre the patella in the knee, and therefore they prevent potential knee damage. The important thing though is to have good form when doing these exercises. [https://health.usnews.com/wellness/articles/2016-06-17/is-it-bad-that-my-knees-crack-when-i-exercise]